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Rabbit, Pupton of

A baked rabbit dish layered with bacon, forcemeat, asparagus, mushrooms, oysters, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and mushroom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 400 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rabbit, Pupton of

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Grease a tin dish with butter and roll out the forcemeat to fit the dish.

  3. Layer the bottom with thin slices of bacon.

  4. Season the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper, then place them in the dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add asparagus tops, mushrooms, oysters, and yolks of hard-boiled eggs on top of the rabbit.

  2. Cover with more slices of bacon and finish with a layer of forcemeat.

  3. Bake for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Turn the dish onto a serving plate and pour sauce over it if serving hot.

  2. It can also be enjoyed cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Asparagus + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rabbit + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms the outer layers that hold the putton together and set as it bakes.
Rabbit
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, gentle baking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that bastes the meat and rabbit from above and below.
Yolks of hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, creamy texture to the filling.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury flavour and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Baking at a low temperature. Baking at a gentle 300°F keeps the rabbit and forcemeat moist and tender, while a higher heat could dry out the lean meat and toughen the forcemeat before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, rabbit, pepper, mushroom, oyster, egg):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, rabbit, pepper, mushroom, oyster, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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